Sunday, December 14, 2014

An Analysis of the highly publicised Bhutanese Cabinet decision to sack 3 Government Secretaries from their Posts

1, The Government lamented the collective decision of the Committee of Secretaries ( COS ) that was arrived at after extensive discussions in 4 COS official Meetings spread over 2 months October & November,2014.

2. The decision of COS is arrived by consent of majority members in the required quorum. There are 10 or more Government Secretaries so the quorum has to be 6 or more Members.

3. It is most unlikely that none of the Ministers were informed by any of the Secretaries during the 2 months about the COS taking up the issue of BHEL and BVT.

4. One Government Secretary was named by a legal Entity in India and by an ex-officer of Royal Government as being a party in the alleged hydro-projects financial scam. A registered Newspaper The Bhutanese had been carrying this allegation story in both print and electronic form for over 3 months now. Facebook was bombarded with it.

5, Against this back drop the Cabinet have had to have dwelt upon this accusation against the Government. And the Government Secretaries would be officially and morally bound to discuss and decide the course of action. The allegation had to be investigated and culprits identified for legal and official action or the instigators of baseless allegations brought to task. You just cannot stay frozen when a Government Secretary is directly identified with a alleged huge financial scam.

6. The Prime Minister had told the Media quite sometime back that his Government was asking Anti Corruption Commission ( ACC ) and the Royal Audit Authority ( RAA ) to investigate. However yesterday the Cabinet revealed that it had not done so. The delay could only be explained if the Government had decided first to take up the issue with Government of India.

7. The BHEL ( The Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited) is a Government of India Enterprise. And only the Indian Government can obtain all necessary details of its operations regarding Supplies to hydro projects in Bhutan.

8. The registered Indian company ENERTIA that made the accusations against the Officials of past two Governments of both Bhutan and India of corrupt practices and identified the Bhutanese Economic Secretary as being among them is based in Mumbai. Again the Indian Government Cooperation is required.

9. An official letter of request was sent to this effect by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Bhutan to presumably the Indian Ambassador in Thimphu. That is the established protocol. The Director General or Joint Secretary could have sent such a letter as per protocol ranking. However the RGOB had always treated the Indian Ambassador with extra courtesy so the Secretary must have signed the letter.

10. This letter could not be written without the knowledge of the Cabinet Ministers. Otherwise all the Secretaries would be sacked together for to quote, " running a parallel Government". Only 3 were selected and with unnecessary over the board publicity. The big question is Why.? Why?

11, There is one plausible answer. The letter was written on 2nd December and after 11 days on 12thDecember the Cabinet reacted in the most disoriented manner. The letter could have provided an opportunity for the present BJP Government to set in motion the Investigative Agencies on the past records of UPA ll Government. After all the alleged corruption deeds took place during the previous Government. The present Modi Government cannot be accused of vindictive action because outwardly it is only obliging the request of a very friendly Country Bhutan.

12. Someone may have tipped off the PDP formed Bhutanese Cabinet on the political fallout upon UPA Government Officials. It was UPA that went to extra length in 2013 to help PDP and even committed Rs. 5 billion to make good PDP Campaign pledges.

13. The way out was to disown the letter. It cannot be withdrawn. So pick 3 Secretaries that had direct hand in writing the letter. The Economic Secretary for providing the material, the Cabinet Secretary who conveyed the Government order to the Foreign Secretary who took up the matter with Indian Government. To disown the baby the umbilical cord had to be cut. The Bhutanese confirms that the letter was copied to the Cabinet Secretary and as per official norm he would be made aware of action taken upon his directive.

14. The Cabinet Press Release states that the 3 Secretaries are surrendered for Royal Civil Service Commission's action and / or till the completion of ACC investigation of the allegations of corruption on the appointment of Bhutan Venture Trading as agent of Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd..

15. It could mean that until things cool down the Secretaries are surrendered to RCSC and after the fast track investigation they could rejoin or be transferred to other Ministries.

16. The Secretaries are appointed with the consent of the Throne and by the same virtue the Throne may have to be appraised of their removal along with substantiated valid reasons. And doing their job or being picked up from amongst all Secretaries linked to the COS decision may just not be an acceptable or justifiable reasons to sack 2 honoured Red Scarf Officers and a 2 term Foreign Secretary honoured with Patang and fringeless broad white Scarf.

Declarations:

The Secretaries are not related to me in any manner. I have not even met them officially or unofficially for many years. And I do not believe that they are affiliated to any specific Political Parties. And in any case I have no attachments to Political Parties. My analysis is simply a political exercise to comprehend this thunder storm in the middle of a beautiful blue sky with the aroma of festival moods of approaching National Day on 17th December an occasion to celebrate the historic Day with special emphasis once again on the 60th Birth Anniversary of the Dharma King who I believe possess the qualities of the Triple Gem.

P.S I shall not be responding to any comments favourable or vicious except if officially demanded which I do not expect in a democracy.

Hey Haap Tsagay, you disclaim related to secretaries and any political leanings but your analysis sounds(obevious) otherwise. If the present situation is a thunderstorm, your analysis is perpetuating the condensation and to make it worst you threw the ball to the sacred court. In your earlier blogs, you claim being patriotic but I would advice you that sometimes silence is a better expression to show love for your country than doing so with inflammable analysis.

I have so much respect for the three secretaries who i believed were brillant and had served well in their career. But the news that they had been ousted was quite shocking. All i can hope is that this has nothing to do with political vendattas or personal grudges. Every coin has two sides...so till we hear from the secretaries we cannot really say what has really happened and why so.

These secretaries are among the best chosen by the people and the throne for these highest posts in civil service. They have dedicated all their lives in civil service. They also received red scarves for their services. If you ask civil servants,you will know how much respect they have earned for their honesty and contributions to the nation. They are seen as role models. All of a sudden PDP comes and uses their power to find excuses and to bring them down. That is not acceptable. Many civil servants are completed shocked by this news. It is a political vendeta for being related in some way to previous government. This is a very bad move that no body approves. I am myself shocked. It will not be long before the country is ruined by these amatuer ministers who dont understand abc about ruling a country and who always lies to the people.

For sure they are not chosen by people. They may be capable but they are many other more capable CS just because others do not have the previliege they enjoy. If they have not committed grave mistake, I dont think any rationale head of govt will not take such drastic measure. "Taking decision ( on foreign relation) representing govt without the knowledge of the head of govt tantamount to treason and liable to be behind bars( possessing packets of baba is noting comparatively)

We have seen how PDP has worked so far. We have seen all their words during elections were lies. It has been proven beyond any doubt. So these PDP are saying something without showing any proof of what they are saying like they always do. They did not even show us the letter CoS has sent to India. They are basing their prove on some annonymous person sending them an information. They are not naming that person either as always.

On the other hand we have these most senior civil servants who have recorded proves of their services to the tsa wa sum. Every civil servant got chances but these people excelled and rose to this positions. So they are among the best . Many civil servants I asked agree with this.

So it is upto the people to make conslusions from these facts. On one hand we have constant proven liar and on the other hand we have civil servants with excellent records so far.

Sometimes i wonder if the cabinet wanted the Enertia issue to be left alone. The COS did not and they had to be shut down. Otherwise, why wouldn't the ministers be least bothered & not ever discuss with the secretaries or even otherwise do sth about it since it was already becoming an nationally embarrassing issue. Also i wonder if the cabinet has a point to prove by making it unusually dramatic - press release, press conference, social media release unlike an other times. In a way I find it ridiculous that the govt would uproot the national civil service at the highest level just because they have asked India to take action against a 'small-time' literally insignificant organization. This doesn't make sense at all. We have to take the cabinet's word that it was too strongly worded to affect indo-bhutan relations coz we don't know what the exact words were. I'm doubtful because it was signed by a career diplomat who has been dealing with diplomacy at the highest level for several decades now. The other thing is it will interesting to watch RCSC's response. I guess we will not hear the other side of the story unless the surrendered secretaries are no longer civil servants. I also wonder if the remaining members of the COS will take any moral responsibility of being party to the decision to write the letter. This one really is very interesting.